Friday, October 29, 2010

The obsession with some politicians from Saskatchewan in their opposition to the bid by BHP Billiton for the giant fertilizer company Potash Corp. (NYSE:POT) is getting stranger and stranger, contradictory, and hypocritical.

As Opposition New Democratic leader Dwain Lingenfelter has asked of Premier Brad Wall, how can reports the First Nations are working with Chinese investors and pension funds to put together a bid coincide with Wall's making a "Captain Canada" speech last week?

In other words, as we've mentioned in the past, there seems to be something odd happening behind the scenes in the midst of these contradictory actions.

Wall has been pressuring Saskatchewan politicians to get fully behind his opposition to the deal in order to present a unified front. But that's the point Lingenfelter, that how can there be a unified front when there are other deals being put together which are essentially doing the same thing BHP is: being a foreign company bidding for the Canadian-based potash producer.

Wall continues his mantra of the deal not being a net benefit to Saskatchewan, even though independent studies have shown that not to be the case as all.

In the short term there may be some truth to it, but over a period of time, which is what really counts, it would probably end up being more beneficial to the province and Canada as a whole.

So that still begs the question of why Wall and some are so obsessed with their opposition to the BHP bid. Are they saying they'd rather have the Chinese own Potash than BHP? Why?